A global outlook and outcome of the Environmental Governance programme cycle

To strengthen the governance of and programmatic and administrative support for Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) by United Nations organizations by identifying measures to promote enhanced coordination, coherence and synergies between MEAs and the United Nations system, thus increasing United Nations system's contribution towards a more integrated approach to international environmental governance and management at national, regional and international levels.Available onlineCall Number: [EL]Physical Description: 49 p.

Yearly citation counts for the publication titled "Scale, Sovereignty, and Strategy in Environmental Governance".

Contains raw data and four calculated indexes (Index of Watershed Integrity, Index of Catchment Integrity, Environmental Water Quality Index, and Hydrogeomorphological Index) for the six subunits of the La Laborcilla Microwatershed in the Central Mexican Plateau. This dataset is not publicly accessible because: PI doesn't have access to the most up-to-date data; the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro is the data steward. Interested parties should contact the author. It can be accessed through the following means: PI doesn't have access to the most up-to-date data, so interested parties should contact the author. Format: Data are stored in Excel spreadsheets. PI doesn't have access to the most up-to-date data, so interested parties should contact the author. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Sarmiento-Martinez, M., S. Leibowitz, M.L. Otte, R. Pineda-Lopez, D.P. Garcia-Tello, H. Luna-Soria, L.I. Medina Pacheco, E. Hernandez Perez, and V.H. Cambron-Sandoval. Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) of a Central Mexican Plateau Microwatershed: An Instrument of Environmental Governance. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION. American Water Resources Association, Middleburg, VA, USA, 61(3): e70028, (2025).

Policy actors address complex environmental problems by engaging in multiple and often interdependent policy issues. Policy issue interdependencies imply that efforts by actors to address separate policy issues can either reinforce (‘win-win’) or counteract (‘trade-off’) each other. Thus, if interdependent issues are managed in isolation instead of being coordinated, the most effective and well-balanced solution to the underlying problem might never be realised. This study asks if reinforcing and counteracting interdependencies have different impacts on perception and collaboration. Our empirical study of collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, shows that policy actors often avoid collaborating when the policy issues exhibit reinforcing interdependencies. Our evidence indicates a perceived infeasibility of acting on reinforcing interdependencies. We also find that actors do not consider counteracting interdependencies (‘trade-offs’) at all when they engage in collaboration. Further, even though actors were aware of counteracting and reinforcing interdependencies, our analyses suggest they might be less aware of the former. These findings illustrate that actors either avoid each other due to policy issue interdependencies or, at best, ignore existing interdependencies when engaging in collaboration. Our study highlights the importance of problem perception in accomplishing integrated solutions to complex environmental problems, and of how understandings of different types of interdependencies shape collaboration in environmental governance.

This dataset consists of social network analysis data and policy issue network data. Network data consists of nodes (rows and columns) and links (matrix cells). In the social network data, rows and columns represent actors and matrix cells their collaboration. 1 indicates collaboration, 0 indicates no collaboration. In the policy issue network data, rows and columns represent policy issues, and matrix cells their reinforcing or counteracting interdependencies. Two different policy issue networks (one reinforcing and one counteracting) are represented. The actor-issue file reports the engagement of an actor in a given issue, i.e. that the actor works with that specific issue. The data also includes an actor attribute file, where each row represents the same actor as in the social network data and each column a specific attribute that might characterise the actor (1-yes,0-no). The data files are compatible with the free software MpNet (http://www.melnet.org.au/pnet), and for running Exponential Random Graph Models.

For more information see: Hedlund, J., Nohrstedt, D., Morrison, T. et al. Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration. Sustain Sci (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01145-8

Self-administered questionnaireSelf-administered questionnaire

1. Collaborative approaches to environmental governance are drawing increased interest in research and practice. In this article we investigate the structure and functioning of actor networks engaged in collaboration.

2. We specifically seek to advance understanding of how and why collaborative networks are formed as actors engage in addressing two broad classes of collective action problems: coordination and cooperation. It has been proposed that more risk-prone cooperative problems favor denser and more cohesive bonding network structures, whereas less risky coordination problems favor sparser and more centralized bridging structures.

3. Recent empirical findings however cast some doubts on these assumptions. In building on previous work we propose and evaluate a set of propositions in order to remedy these ambiguities. Our propositions build on the assumption that bridging structures could, if actors’ experience sufficient levels of trust in the collaborative process, adequately support both cooperation and coordination problems.

4. Our empirical investigation of four UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserves gives initial support for our assumptions, and suggest that bridging structures emerge when actors have trust in the collaborative endeavor, and/or when the cost of collaborative failure is deemed low. While caution is warranted due to data limitations, our findings contribute to improved policies and guidelines on how to stimulate and facilitate more effective collaborative approaches to environmental governance.

The dataset contains four networks (one per MAB reserve). The data is further described in the published paper. For each network, there are several files. The files are formatted for the program MPnet. One file per network is the sociomatrix (rows and columns are nodes, and the values in the matrix are the links between the nodes). Several other files, per network, contain node attributes (further described in the published paper). The order of the node attributes are the same as in the sociomatrices.

Actor-Issue Edgelist

We lack an understanding of how diverse policymakers interact to govern biodiversity. Taking Colombia as a focal case, we asked: (i) What is the composition of today’s policy mix?; (ii) How has the policy mix evolved over time?; (iii) How do policies differ among actors and ecosystems?; and (iv) Does the policy mix address the primary threats to biodiversity? We found 186 biodiversity-related policies that govern multiple ecosystems, use different instruments, and evolve as a mix to address the main threats to biodiversity (i.e., agriculture and aquaculture, biological resource use). We notice policy gaps in the governance of invasive species. Biodiversity policy integration into some sectoral policies, such as climate change and pollution, has become more common in the past decade. Our results point to an increased need for effective coordination across sectors and actors, as new ones become part of the policy mix.

The catalog provides the information about GGP, Sustainable Development, Economic Dimension, Ecological Dimension and Social and Institutional Dimension indices of the 2006 year. Catalog compiled on the base of the data of annual report of such international organizations as the United Nations, Heritage Foundation, World Economic Forum, International Living and Yale University working group on the environment (USA), the Columbia University. The data file contains 97 lines.

Sustainable management of resources is crucial for balancing competing livelihood, economic, and environmental goals. Since forests and other systems do not exist in isolation, comprehensive jurisdictional approaches to forest, and land-use governance can help promote sustainability. The ability of jurisdictions to provide evidence of progress toward sustainability is essential for attracting public and private sector investments and maintaining local stakeholder involvement. The Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool (SLRT) provides a way to assess enabling conditions for jurisdictional sustainability through an evidence-based rating system. We applied this rating tool in 19 states and provinces across six countries (Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Cote d'Ivoire, Mexico, Peru) that are members of the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF TF). Each SLRT assessment was completed using publicly available information, interviews with stakeholders in the jurisdiction, and a multi-stakeholder workshop to validate the indicator ratings. This paper explores the effects of stakeholder involvement in the validation process, along with stakeholder perceptions of the tool's usefulness. Our analysis shows that the validation workshops often led to modifications of the indicator ratings, even for indicators originally assessed using publicly available data, highlighting the gap between existence of a policy and its implementation. Also, a more diverse composition of stakeholders at the workshops led to more changes in indicator ratings, which indicates the importance of including different perspectives in compiling and validating the assessments. Overall, most participants agreed that the tool is useful for self-assessment of the jurisdiction and to address coordination gaps. Further, the validation workshops provided a space for discussions across government agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs), producer organizations, indigenous peoples and local community representatives, and researchers about improving policy and governance conditions. Our findings from the analysis of a participatory approach to collecting and validating data can be used to inform future research on environmental governance and sustainability.

In many communities, regions, or landscapes, there are numerous environmental groups working across different sectors and creating stewardship networks that shape the environment and the benefits people derive from it. The make-up of these networks can vary, but generally include organizations of different sizes and capacities. As the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 to the present) shuts down businesses and nonprofits, catalyzes new initiatives, and generally alters the day-to-day professional and personal lives, it is logical to assume that these stewardship networks and their environmental work are impacted; exactly how, is unknown. In this study, we analyze the self-reported effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on stewardship groups working in southeast New England, USA. Stewardship organizations were surveyed from November 2020 to April 2021 and asked, among other questions, “How is Covid-19 affecting your organization?” We analyzed responses using several qualitative coding approaches. Our analysis revealed group-level impacts including changes in group capacity, challenges in managing access to public green spaces, and altered forms of volunteer engagement. These results provide insights into the varied effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and government responses such as stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies on stewardship that can inform the development of programs to reduce negative outcomes and enhance emerging capacities and innovations.

I prosjektet MULTISOURCE/DigiVEIVANN så tester vi regnbed som en naturbasert renseløsning for forurenset overvann. For mer informasjon se https://www.niva.no/prosjekter/multisource.

The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) provides a framework for the collation of a consistent set of climate impact data across sectors and scales. It also provides a unique opportunity for considering interactions between climate change impacts across sectors through consistent scenarios.
The ISIMIP3a part of the third simulation round is dedicated to i) impact model evaluation and improvement and ii) detection and attribution of observed impacts according to the framework of IPCC AR5 Working Group II Chapter 18. To this end all simulations are driven by observed socio-economic information combined with either observed (factual) climate data or a detrended (counterfactual) version of the observed climate allowing for the generation of a “no climate change” baseline.
This data set provides annual maps of various land use categories. In particular it gives annual maps of both rainfed and irrigated areas of total croplands, of 5 crop categories (C3 annual, C3 perennial, C4 annual, C4 perennial and C3 nitrogen fixing crops) and of 15 crop types/categories (C3 annual disaggregated into: rapeseed, rice, temperate cereals, temperate roots, tropical roots, sunflower, others C3 annual; C3 perennial: (no further disaggregation); C3 nitrogen-fixing disaggregated into: groundnut, pulses, soybean, others C3 nitrogen-fixing; C4 annual disaggregated into: maize, tropical cereals; C4 perennial: sugarcane). Furthermore, maps of pastures, managed rangelands and urban areas are provided.
Data is available for the historical time period: 1850-2021.
Version 1.1 of this dataset adds the 1901soc scenario with fixed year-1901 direct human influences.
Version 1.2 adds data for the years 2020 and 2021.

This data set provides annual land transformation to be used as input data for ISIMIP3a (www.isimip.org). The data here originates from the historic LUH2 data set (Hurtt et al, 2020, see also https://luh.umd.edu), which in turn is based on HYDE 3.2 (Klein-Goldewijk, 2016). The data was interpolated to the ISIMIP 0.5° grid using first-order conservative remapping. The data set consists of 115 land transformation categories, one for each transition from one type of land use to another.

United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index: Technology Support Policies data was reported at 2.000 NA in 2020. This stayed constant from the previous number of 2.000 NA for 2019. United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index: Technology Support Policies data is updated yearly, averaging 1.500 NA from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2020, with 31 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3.000 NA in 2009 and a record low of 1.000 NA in 2005. United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index: Technology Support Policies data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ESG: Environmental: Environmental Policy Stringency Index: OECD Member: Annual.

United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index data was reported at 3.028 NA in 2020. This records an increase from the previous number of 2.917 NA for 2019. United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index data is updated yearly, averaging 1.250 NA from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2020, with 31 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3.028 NA in 2020 and a record low of 0.833 NA in 1991. United States Environmental Policy Stringency Index data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.ESG: Environmental: Environmental Policy Stringency Index: OECD Member: Annual.

Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model is a cropping systems model that was developed to estimate soil productivity as affected by erosion as part of the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act analysis for 1980, which revealed a significant need for improving technology for evaluating the impacts of soil erosion on soil productivity. EPIC simulates approximately eighty crops with one crop growth model using unique parameter values for each crop. It can be configured for a wide range of crop rotations and other vegetative systems, tillage systems, and other management strategies. It predicts effects of management decisions on soil, water, nutrient and pesticide movements, and their combined impact on soil loss, water quality, and crop yields for areas with homogeneous soils and management. EPIC functions on a daily time step and can simulate hundreds of years. Since the initial development, EPIC has been continually improving through the additions of algorithms to simulate water quality, nitrogen and carbon cycling, climate change, and the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The processes simulated include leaf interception of solar radiation; conversion to biomass; division of biomass into roots, above ground mass, and economic yield; root growth; water use; and nutrient uptake. It can be configured for a wide range of crop rotations and other vegetative systems, tillage systems, and other management practices. The model can also assess the cost of erosion for determining optimal management strategies. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) Model. File Name: Web Page, url: https://epicapex.tamu.edu/epic/ Web site for the EPIC model: describes capabilities, examples of applications, and download links for executables, source code, and supporting tools.

The Environmental Change Network (ECN) is a multi-agency, long-term monitoring programme for identifying and quantifying environmental changes associated with man's activities.

It aims to distinguish man-made changes from natural variations and

trends, and to give early warning of undesirable effects.

ECN measurements are collected regularly at a growing number of network

sites (currently 10 terrestrial and 37 freshwater) throughout the UK, using standardised protocols.

The data cover a wide range of physical, chemical and biological

parameters, including climate, air quality and flow, soil development and chemistry, invertebrates, vertebrates, vegetation, land use and site management practice.

  Oracle and Arc-Info are used to handle the resulting temporal and

spatial database, incorporating meta-information on data specifications, origins and quality.